Monday, June 7, 2010

Sandwich 98: PHO Real from Sunny and Annie's Gourmet Deli


You can't tell from that picture, but Sunny and Annie's is TINY.  There's barely any room to move around, snd you can walk the whole length of the store in about ten seconds.  Most of the selection was like a normal small NYC drug/liquor store.  But the sandwich counter...



Unfortunately, I didn't have enough room to back up and get a full blown picture, but there were a staggering amount of selections, many quite exotic.  I got what you can see listed above, the PHO Real (excellent pun), and actually got two of them, one hot and one cold.  On the subway ride back from the deli, I could see people staring at me, and then I realized it was the smell coming from the bag, which was wondrous.  And the sandwich...




As you can see, it's a monster.  There is a LOT in there, which you can see from the listing above.  The concept is that it's a deconstructed Pho soup as a sandwich (on a kaiser roll?!).  In that respect, it works extremely well; I won't say it tastes exactly like normal pho, but I could taste the resemblance, which is impressive.  The beef was superb, as was the hoisin sauce.  There were way too many onions in mine, which at times overwhelmed the other flavors.  Finally, there was a ton of cilantro, which was tasty but like the onions occasionally overwhelmed the sandwich.

I'm actually really torn about the sandwich.  It was a unique experience, and for the most part absolutely delicious.  It also featured a great combination of different tastes and textures, including sweet, bitter, crunchy, and rich.  However, there really were too many onions and too much cilantro, which left a number of bites feeling unbalanced and overpowering.  Overall, I give it points for the hoisin sauce and beef and the concept, but as a sandwich at times it fell a little flat.  3.4 out of 5. 


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